


Best First Date

by siempreniall



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-10
Updated: 2013-03-10
Packaged: 2017-12-04 21:28:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/715283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siempreniall/pseuds/siempreniall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis has finally gotten fed up with no one understanding how good of friends he and Niall are, so they go on an outing together one May evening in the hopes that someone will see them out as mates. Instead, they kinda end up having the best first date ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best First Date

**Author's Note:**

> Rated Teen for language. You will not find any sex in here thank you.

Louis scrunched up his face as his scrolled through his phone.

“Fuck you,” he said to nothing in particular as he threw the phone onto the couch.

“Watch it, Louis,” said Niall, too focused on _Keeping Up with the Kardashians_ to notice that Louis was actually mad.

“I’ve had 5 DMs in the past hour from fans that think that I hate you,”

“Jesus, that again?” asked Niall, still not turning his face from the TV.

A recent interview had shown Niall answering some stupid question about what he looks for in a girl when Louis chimed in with a “Have you quite finished?” and Niall spent the rest of interview looking glum. In reality he was a bit tired and a bit homesick, but about 30 people on the comment section mentioned /tension/.

“It’s getting tiring, don’t ya think?” Louis asked as he plopped down on the sofa, throwing his legs on top of Niall and hitting his crotch with his feet a little harder than planned. Or maybe just as planned. It was hard to tell with Louis.

“Fine, fine. Whataya wanna do about it?” Niall squeaked out, doubled over Louis’s feet in pain.

“Hit ‘em over the head,”

Niall glared at Louis.

“But like, that’s the thing. The only way to shut them the fuck up is to give them what they want. We would need to like get into some banter on Twitter or go out together or something. Apparently someone needs to be able to photograph or screenshot our friendship for it to be real,”

“Well then let’s go do something. It’ll make them shut up and it’ll make you shut up. Two birds; one stone,”

“You said you wanted to watch this _Kardashians_ marathon, though,”

“You know I’ve already seen ‘em all,”

“Niall, you’re gonna stop watching this shitty tv show for me? I’m flattered,”

“Nope, I’ve changed my mind. I actually hate you. Go away,”

Louis reached over and started flicking Niall’s forehead until he finally conceded.

“We have to eat something, though. I’m starving,”

“Yeah, you’ll have to actually put a shirt on, too,”

“Fuck,”

**  
Niall drove Louis around Camden until they reached a parking garage. It was a warm May day, and it was only a few more days before they had to pack up again and fly out to the US to continue their seemingly never-ending tour. They didn’t regret or hate playing concerts one bit, but they had underestimated just how insane this World Tour was. They only had a few more days rest before hitting it all out again. Lou had been with Eleanor for the past few days and Niall had gone home to Mullingar, but just as the two boys returned to London the others scooted away. Liam went on vacation to Paris with Danielle, Harry was visiting family, and Zayn was following Little Mix around somewhere in Europe. They were all going to reunite in a few short days, but for now Louis and Niall were alone, and really all they wanted to do was hang out together.

“I think that pizza place I like is nearby. Gah, what’s it called?” Niall asked.

“Luigi’s, dingus,”

“Yeah, yeah. That. Wanna get a slice?”

“I don’t know, man. I’m watching what I eat remember?”

“If one slice killed you I’d be dead and gone by now. Let’s go,”

So far they were sure no one had seen them, but they weren’t really counting on paparazzi. They only followed Harry around, and sometimes if the photogs were already out they’d scrape a few photos out of the ‘lesser’ members. The only people to catch them out tonight would be fans, though.

Apparently 4 in the afternoon on a Thursday is not a popular time for pizza as Luigi’s had only one other patron – an elderly man reading the paper.

“God, no one’s even here,” said Niall as they made their way towards the counter.

“Do you really think I dragged you out here to have some fan catch us on her iPhone? Mate, I want to have some fun too,”

“You’re gonna have fun with a garden salad sans dressing?”

“Shut up,”

When they got to the register, Niall ordered three slices of pepperoni and an order of chips while Louis got himself a single slice of plain, hold the salad.

Back at their table the boys gorged themselves on their early dinner as Louis magically found a story he had yet to tell Niall about his break with Eleanor. It had something to do with how she took him to a little café on the backstreets of Manchester with her friends, and by the end of the story he was going on about how cute El was when she got smashed and rapped ‘Starships’ in the cab ride back, causing him to tip the cabbie an extra few bucks. The story was all over the place and Niall was barely following.

“You gonna eat that, mate?” Louis asked, gesturing to the slice still left in front of Niall. He had devoured the first two slices and was continuing to pick at his chips while ignoring the last slice.

“Nah, I figured you’d want it so I just left it there,”

“Haha, real funny. Almost slapped my knee,”

“No, really. You’ve been eyeing it for the past ten minutes, and I’m not hungry,”

“Not hungry my ass. I’ve seen you eat an entire pizza before. An entire pizza,”

“Eat it before I do, Tommo. It’s survival of the fittest,”

Louis quickly grabbed up the slice and started eating, making sure to stick a tongue out of food at Niall as some sort of odd thank you.

“Before we leave I’ve got to take a quick wee,” Niall said after Louis was done eating.

“Of course you do. I’ll wait outside,”

Louis stood out in the sun and checked his phone when he heard a giggle nearby. A gaggle of tween friends had gathered. They were shy but he gladly took photos with them. As soon as they left Niall returned from the toilet.

“Why were you so long?”

“That old guy was in there before me!”

“You missed me taking pictures with some girls. I don’t think they saw us together!”

“Ah man! Then we could have gone home and I could catch the episode where Kanye is introduced,”

**

“Wanna go to the markets?” asked Louis. Niall was more likely to go shopping at Asos, but Lou loved any little stall he could find. Especially to buy little trinkets for El.

“Sure why not,”

The markets were crowded, it being summer. The warmer it got in London the more people visited and the more people went to the markets for ‘unusual souvenirs’.

“Are you seeing El before we leave for Mexico?”

“I don’t know. She’s swamped with class and I don’t want to ask her to take any more time off. I might just mail something to her. As a surprise or something,”

“Oh, that’s cute,” Niall said, playing with an ugly beaded necklace.

“We gotta find you a girl, man,”

“Yeah let’s just go look in that stall over there for one. I’m sure there’s a good BOGO sale going on. Give one to Harry,”

“No but seriously. You haven’t had someone in so long. We gotta get you out there,”

The two moved away from the ugly jewelry stand they were at, walking aimlessly through the other shops.

“Jesus Christ, Louis. It’s not like I’m not ‘out there’. You got lucky with El and Zayn got lucky with Perrie and Liam got lucky with Danielle. I just haven’t had luck yet. I’m not sitting at home wanking at the computer crying that I haven’t had a good snog in four years. I’m really just waiting for someone who’s so worth it, and that hasn’t happened yet. I mean, I’m about to leave for a two-month tour through America. I’m not really in a place to proper fall in love,”

“I didn’t realize it was a touchy issue, sorry,”

“Bobby keeps talking ‘bout it,”

“Good aul Bobby,” Louis laughed.

“It’s just like, ah, I feel like sometimes I need a girl. Like I’ll get really close to someone and I realize how much I miss having a girlfriend. And I’ll get all giddy and excited and it all falls to shit before Sugarscape catches up to it. And then I feel like crap for like a week and you guys help and stuff then I feel stupid for getting so wrapped up in a person,”

“Man, do you realize how much I rely on El? Sometimes on tour I’ll get a whiff of her perfume on something I haven’t worn yet, or a fan will be dressed exactly like her because I swear to God they try to mimic her, or I’ll see a photo of us on my twitter or phone. And I’ll just, like, break. Which is stupid because I have those photos to help me, but they usually end up working against me. Sometimes we forget how much we need others. And that’s, like, okay, dude,”

“Shit, what were we thinking when we agreed to do two whole months in North America. Like last time it was only a month and I was already aching to go back to my family. You guys doing Irish accents can only help so much,”

“I seriously think that every single time we have a break. Just like ‘Jesus how do I do this every time we go on tour?’ And then that first night you look out at the crowd and you realize how dumb you are of ever dreading doing that,”

“Yeah,” Niall said wistfully as he got distracted and wandered into a record shop.

Before Louis could follow him in he heard a breathy voice say “Louis” behind him. He turned around and saw a fan holding a camera.

“It’s you!” she screamed, “Sorry! It’s just I’ve been following you for a few minutes because I couldn’t tell if it was you or not. I mean, you’ve got aviators and a beanie on and there’s so many people that it’s hard to see. Am I interrupting something? I’m just a big fan!”

“Actually I’m just here with…” he started to say as he saw a few tears forming in the girl’s eyes.

“Oh don’t let me interrupt you! Just a quick piccy?”

Trying not to block the entrance of the store much longer Louis obliged her, and she quickly scattered off amidst the crowd. Louis quickly found Niall on the left wall.

“I put all the Jake Bugg records behind the Mariah Carey ones,” Niall said, gleaming at Louis with pride.

“Good man. A girl just stopped me to take a picture and I’m afraid she didn’t see you. I’m afraid our bro outing is started to not actually exist,”

Niall pulled a sad face so dramatic Louis couldn’t help but smile.

**

Louis finally found something to mail off to Eleanor, a postcard with a painting of a park that he recognized as near their flat, and they decided to quit shopping.

“Louis, I’m hungry,”

“What did I say about two slices not being enough?” Louis playfully yelled.

“There’s an ice cream cart over there that looks like it has ‘Niall’ written all over it,”

Niall ran over and got himself a double scoop of cookie dough while Louis grabbed a water bottle. They decided to enjoy their food sitting along the canal.

“Do you remember coming here to shoot the screens for the tour?” asked Niall.

“Of course. Mine was funnier, that’s why I was by myself. Cuz I’m the funniest,”

Niall threw his arm around Louis’s shoulder and proceeded to eat that way.

“Why do you always shove your food in my face,” asked Louis.

“Why do you always pinch my nipples? Because we were put on this earth to annoy the shit out of each other, Tommo,”

“Dude, we like, just had the best date of lives. Do you realize that?”

“Pizza, shopping, and ice cream to finish it off? What do ya say we go back to my place, put on some smooth jazz, close all the curtains…”

Louis proceeded to pinch one of Niall’s nipples which made Niall drop his ice cream into the canal. Louis bought him a new one.

**

The boys found their way back to the car and hurried off. They were sure no one had spotted them after the girl in the market, and they were positive no one had seen them together. Indeed, Louis checked on twitter and found out what all of his mates did that day, according to the gossip sites. Liam was seen with Danielle on top of the Eiffel Tower, Zayn took a picture with someone backstage at a Little Mix show in Munich, Harry was spotted with uni friends in Manchester, and Louis took some photos with a fan in Camden. Niall was nowhere to be found.

“We failed, mate,” Louis said with a puppy dog pout tacked on to the end.

“Are you kidding? I would have spent all day inside today. Literally all day. Sometimes I just get too caught up in the Kardashians you know? Too much to keep up with. And I prolly would have eaten like an entire sleeve of oreos and ordered some delivery and it would have been boring. You saved me, brah,”

“No biggy, bro. Hey, do you mind if I spend the night? The flat’s pretty boring when no one’s around. I mean when he’s in town Harry’s over a lot, but other than that I’ll just go home and like, be boring. I don’t even have Keeping Up with the Kardashians. I guess I could play pool or something by myself,”

“Tommo you’re joking, right? You once spent an entire week at my place without asking first. You just came over for a week and didn’t leave. I still have your toothbrush you just left it there. Sometimes I accidentally use it, hope you don’t mind,”

“Jesus, why didn’t you tell me! I wondered where that went for like a month,”

“No but really, you don’t have to ask to come over. I mean you usually don’t, but just don’t ever again,”

“Pal, come on. I just felt like I should ask considering it’s our first date and all,”

“Our best first date,”

**

Back at Niall’s flat Louis sprawled himself out on the couch. The sun was setting already and Louis hadn’t really gotten much sleep the night before, so the soft light of the candles was really pleasing to Louis.

“Did we really have to light candles now?”

“I promised you candles, Louis! You’re getting fucking candles!” Niall yelled from the bedroom.

“Where’s my jazz, I demand jazz!”

“You’ll find it up your arse, pal!”

Niall walked back into the room and threw a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.

“Here, get changed. You still smell like that incense stall,”

While Louis stripped down Niall checked his phone and saw that Louis had tweeted him only a few minutes before: “@NiallOfficial Enjoying the candles ! ! ! #bestfirstdate”

“Tommo, did ya really have to tweet me from the other room?”

“Sorry, mate, but I really hated the way everyone thinks we hate each other. So I kinda just like, wanted to make it clear that we’re fucking in love,” Louis said as he walked over to Niall and gave him a love bite.

“No wonder Liam hates those. They hurt and they look real,”

“Go big or go home!” Louis screamed from the bathroom, looking for his toothbrush.

“So whattaya want to eat?”

“Are you fucking kidding me? You basically ate two servings of ice cream only an hour ago,”

“I’m in the mood for the salty stuff now. Crisps it is,”

Niall grabbed a packet of crisps and two beers from the kitchen before joining Louis on the couch. He flipped his feet onto Louis, paying him back for the afternoon.

“God, a balls injury on the first date? What about our future offspring?”

As Louis tried to ease the pain his phone buzzed, he had a mention in a tweet: “@Louis_Tomlinson balls pain #bestfirstdate”

“There. Now we look proper in love,” Niall said as he handed Louis a cold beer. Louis placed it against his crotch for a bit of help.

“Now that you’ve incapacitated me, love, please tell me we’re not going to watch the Kardashians,”

“Of course not,” said Niall as Louis let out a sigh of relief, “It’s over. _East of Essex_ it is!”


End file.
